[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 172 (Friday, October 2, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H5644-H5645]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       IT IS TIME TO BAN ASBESTOS

  (Mr. WALDEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Speaker, it does not give me pleasure to be here 
today to say what I am about to say. I am really frustrated.

[[Page H5645]]

  The Energy and Commerce Committee, which I am the ranking member and 
former chairman of, we worked most of this year on legislation to ban 
the manufacture, processing, and distribution of asbestos.
  We found common ground. We worked together. We voted it out of 
committee by a 47-1 vote. We fully anticipated the work product of the 
Republicans and Democrats in that committee to be brought to the floor 
under suspension, as approved by the committee.
  Sadly, Democrats on Friday night listed the bill, but they had 
rewritten parts of it without ever consulting with Republicans and 
tried to cram it through the process.
  Now, after many days of trying to work this out between us, and we 
have offered many alternatives to try and accommodate our majority 
colleagues, they are trying to blame Republicans for this bill not 
coming to the floor.
  Well, I will tell you what, bring the bill we passed out of committee 
to the floor and we will vote for it, and it will pass overwhelmingly.
  You are the majority party. You just brought a $2.2 trillion bill to 
the floor; you can bring this one under a rule. Do that. Keep your 
word.
  Let's work together and ban asbestos.

                          ____________________